We were out in New York this weekend for Nathan's homecoming. I can't believe that his two years are up already. But I remember how quickly my mission went, and I guess it's not so hard to believe after all.

Nathan gave a great homecoming talk about missionary work, testimony, and the power of the Spirit. It made me remember all the feelings I had when I got off my mission. It's amazing to think of all the missionary work that we members could be doing. Sadly, I know that I'm not doing half as much as I could and should.

But, the weekend was fun. We went to Great Escape and I got to relax in a wave pool. Just being in water for the first time this summer made me want to go to the beach very badly. We are planning a trip for the upcoming weekend. I can hardly wait to feel the saltwater.

I love the beach!

I've been reading the latest Harry Potter book, and while I don't want to give anything away here, I plan on writing up my thoughts about it once Mia has finished reading it also. It will be at the reading section of my site. A section I haven't updated in far too long.

I need to get back into the habit of adding things on those pages. I've been reading and writing some interesting stuff lately. It should be available for people that are interested.

We keep thinking that our boy is going to start crawling at any moment. He gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth, gets up onto his toes, and then falls back down and puts his head onto his hands. That final pose is so cute, but I know it means he is frusterated about not going anywhere. We try to encourage him all we can, but on the one hand, it's nice not to have to keep up with him.

At least that's what we keep hearing from parents with kids just older than Ethan.

I was released from my old calling of Marriage and Family firesdie coordinator and called to serve as a primary teacher. I'm teaching the CTR 5 class along with another brother in the ward. The first two weeks (remember this post is being written at the end of July) have been pretty good. The kids are actually good kids, they follow directions pretty well and aren't too rowdy.

Being a primary teacher is not like anything I have done before, and really not something I ever expected to do. But, I have seen our Bishop deliberating with his councillors over callings, and I know that they are guided by the Spirit. I'm sure that I will learn many, many things that I'll be able to pass along to Ethan in this calling.

I wish that I could say I have been good about blogging this month. But really I am cheating and using the date changing function to fill in July. It isn't that we have been all that busy, but just that after working all day and taking care of Ethan at night, then trying to clean the house, well I just get tired.

So, the 4th of July weekend was relaxing. We were alone and we cleaned up the house. It needed some thorough cleaning, and de-junking. We send quite a bit of stuff to the local thrift store and feel pretty good about the rest of the house.
We also had a BBQ with some friends of ours in our small backyard.

Mia worked on the 4th because she was getting paid her normal pay plus the bonus pay for an open shift plus holiday pay. So, since we couldn't do fireworks anyway, it was a good day for her to work.

And of course, the boy was cute as ever. He is 7 months old, and I have been better about getting some pictures of him up.

It is surreal to me that June is over. I can't believe how quickly the year is passing us by. Ethan is nearly 7 months old and before we know it he'll be hitting one year. I can't even imagine him being a year old.

I still feel like it was just yesterday when the hospital sent us home with a pat on the back to take care of this precious little life all on our own. We've made it this far, but as I said, I still feel like this new father who isn't sure what to do with a real child. A child living in our home. All the time. Every day. It is so surreal.

But, when I come home from work, and see him sitting on his blanket, looking up waiting to see me. And then he smiles and gets so excited until I come over and he can give me a big hug and try to eat my shoulder, that's when I remember that it has been 7 months. That's when I realize just how much Ethan loves us and how much I love him.

Our boy just keeps growing and growing. This week, we swear he is on the verge of crawling. He can easily arch himself up with his arms to look at someone standing over him. And in the last few days he has even managed to get up onto his knees, but can't seem to get anywhere after that.

Today he's made great progress pushing himself backwards, but that doesn't help him get to the toys we put just a little out of reach to encourage him to crawl. Well, I'm sure he will get it in good time.

My company launched a new site last Thursday, but I was out before it went live. So I got to see the updates over the weekend from home, but didn't hear the story about it until I came back to work today.

Mostly everything went smoothly. For the size of the change we made to how our site was structured, built, and referenced on the Web, it was pretty smooth. Now we are getting back to prioritizing what needs to be done. And that includes writing a lot of new pages.

This is exciting for me because I want to have a job that is heavy on the writing. I'm getting a better feel for my company's voice and tone, as well as learning about image formats (there are a ton). It's a great learning experience for me. We are both very glad that I was able to find (and get) this job because we feel like we can finally feel more settled where we are. Which is good because our house is getting filled up with stuff and I don't know how we would move it all.

Mom got in today on her way to her master's classes this summer. We were excited to see her and she was excited to see Ethan.

Even though she was only in town for one night and one day, we had a great time. Ethan loved the attention (he always does) and Mom loved getting to spend so much time with the boy.

It is amazing how much he has changed since Christmas. He is so much bigger, more alert, and seems to learn new things every day. This weekend he decided that he wanted to laugh just as much as possible. Every time someone picked him up he would smile and laugh. He has the cutest laugh too. Mom caught some great pictures of him smiling, something we have been trying to do for a while.

I find going to the dentist to be almost relaxing. Maybe that is quite the right word for it. Let me explain.

Once I am in the chair and the dentist is in the room, I fold my hands across my stomach, with the fingers interlaced, and close my eyes. As long as I don't see the needle going into my mouth I am fine. Once I am numbed up, the rest is easy for me.

I had a root canal done today. At least the first part of it, and I think that I dozed off near the end. So, maybe relaxing is the right word after all.

Another thing that I find interesting about the Dentist is how oddly sensory it is. Like I said, I close my eyes so vision is gone. And the dentist numbs your mouth pretty well, so most touch is gone as well. Our dentist uses the rubber dams to keep stuff from getting into the tooth he is working on, but it also keeps his work from getting into your mouth, so taste is gone too.

This leaves only hearing and smell.

The smell of getting dental work done. It's impossible to describe the exact smell of hot tooth as the dentist drills, but I find it very distinctive. It's an interesting smell that reminds me of where I am. Hearing the drill whir and smelling the smell of teeth getting heated from the friction is a powerful memory of my dentist visits.

However, even though I can relax during it, I'd still much rather not have to go to the dentist for fillings and such. Just regular cleanings and check-ups.